Typical writing tablets preferably provide a flat base surface upon which papers or other items may be laid and written upon. Writing tablets generally have the capability of being portable. In educational formats, writing tablets that have the capability of allowing interactive study with standard documents allow students an opportunity to learn without any significant degradation to the instructional documents.
Standardized paper sheets, forms, templates, or checklists are often intended for use as a temporary document, upon which marks or other notations allow an individualized response to a standard formatted work sheet. The worksheets provide a uniform level of instruction, with which a plurality of students can each use the same work sheet in their respective studies.
Prior attempts at incorporating standard work sheets to teach an individualized group of students have generally used separate answer sheets to provide an area for written responses to standardized questions. Upon completion of the activity, the marked answer sheet is often discarded, and a new sheet or form is used when the activity is again performed. Optimally, some type of writing surface, separate from the standardized work sheet is provided, having the ability to sustain multiple erasures.
Educational examples include various school room activities such as arithmetic practice sheets and tests, writing and art exercises in which letters or shapes are traced, fill-in-the-blank exercises, and many others. Educational needs are not the sole recipients of this type of invention. Examples include household grocery lists, miscellaneous lists, and work status sheets in the manufacturing and service industries.
An invention which holds the standardized master sheet, and allows the necessary written information to be recorded in close juxtaposition to the master sheet, which can be later removed, without actually contacting the master sheet or degrading it in any way, has many benefits. For example, a master sheet containing mathematical problems can be worked on and given an answer by a student using this invention. The student is able to write down the answers and show the method for arriving at the answers on a transparent or translucent cover sheet which covers the master sheet. The student may then check his answers by removing the master sheet, turning it over, and re-inserting it behind the cover sheet. The answers to the problems, which are printed on the back side of the master sheet, are then displayed. The answers or other markings which the student has placed on the cover sheet are then erased. The student may then either work the same exercise again, or remove it and replace it with a different master sheet.
Prior inventions have sought to create a learning aid which was capable of using a standardized sheet with an integrated answer sheet. Such an example is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,256 (Kees), in which a learning aid permitted a student to insert the worksheet into the rigid body of the invention which defined a space between two planes. The top plane was clear and allowed markings to be made on it, above the worksheet which was positioned below the top plane. This particular invention required multiple supported sheets of material, and the transport and storage of such could prove to be rather cumbersome. The invention presently disclosed uses a single rigid surface and one flexible overlay. No static electricity is required, and worksheets are laid into the present invention, not fed into it.
Another variation on this type of invention is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,295 (Concra). This invention was disclosed as an educational training device in which a plurality of transparent sheets and a base sheet were secured in a fixed registry on the top surface of the frame. This allowed the person to trace or draw on a transparent sheet situated above the underlying master sheet. The drawback to this invention was that the support means, used to position the top transparent sheet, were basically utilized through a series of holes or perforations, and although this invention would allow multiple sheets to add different characteristics to maps and the like, the bottom edge of the top sheet would easily move sideways if force were applied. While this invention would work well with maps, it has sufficient drawbacks, and it would not be suitable for use when the master sheet has, for example, a depicted set of math problems, with a top transparent sheet covering the sheet upon which the student would write their answers to the problems.
An attempt to improve the function of a transparent writing surface with the use of a master sheet of educational problems, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,383 (Mannino). This invention had a framework enclosure which had the ability to hold or position a top transparency sheet over a master sheet of problems or other miscellaneous printed items. One of the drawbacks to this invention was the substantial size of the frame which supported the master sheet and top transparency sheet. Although the transparency sheet would be securely held in position, the entire framework had to be lifted up from the rest of the apparatus, in order to remove or reposition the transparency. In this format, this invention was basically comprised of a rigid top transparent lid which, when closed over a writing surface, would position or allow the document on the right surface to be held in place, while other markings could be made directly to the transparent sheet. Although the invention appears to properly disclose the fact that the top transparent sheet is easily erasable, the removal of the actual transparent sheet itself could be rather burdensome.
A further attempt to make a more productive and user friendly apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,599,189 (Kees). This invention is an improvement over that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,258 and is by the same inventor. In this invention, a clipboard was actually inserted between the upper and lower piece, and the master sheet or worksheet was placed on clipboard. Writing and other notations were placed directly on the upper or top piece. This invention clearly provided a simple means to insert and use a master sheet with the student able to provide answers in an erasable format on the transparent covering. The drawback to this invention is that there are two separate rigid pieces that had to be combined in order to work together. Manufacturing this invention would appear to require an extrusion method, with other types of machining and molding done as well. This invention, as its predecessors, continues to have a rather bulky format, which proves cumbersome, especially to young students who are the intended users, and who must often transport the apparatus.
Attempts have been made to provide an invention that can securely hold sheets of plastic in position on or above a writing surface. An example of such an attempt is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,900 (Volk), in which a series of covering tabs are provided to hold a stencil sheet in place for purposes of tracing on a paper below. While this invention does provide a reasonable means to hold a transparent sheet in position, the protruding tabs infringe on the available writing surface, and may easily interfere with efforts of writing or making marks on the transparent sheet, through physical contact with the writer's hand, as well as lessening the available surface area which to make marks upon.